Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua compares CFP process to 'musical chairs'
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SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua continued his media tour on Monday, Dec. 8, in the wake of the football program’s surprising omission from this year’s 12-team College Football Playoff field.
As it turns out, “Team B” wasn’t pleased with the public treatment it received from its football scheduling partners in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say that they have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show. “We have no gripes about any of the schools in the ACC. But we were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack their biggest, really, business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports.”
Notre Dame (10-2) lost out to ACC member Miami (10-2) for the final at-large spot in this year’s playoff, largely on the basis of a season-opening road loss to the Hurricanes on Aug. 31. The Irish had been ranked ahead of Miami in all five weekly CFP updates before Sunday’s reversal.
That came in the wake of five-loss Duke’s overtime upset of Virginia in the ACC Championship on Saturday night. Without Miami getting the nod, the ACC would have been the only Power 4 conference without a full member in the field of 12.
“I have tremendous respect for Miami,” Bevacqua said. “Great team, great school. Their athletic director, Dan Radakovich, is a good friend. And all the teams in the ACC (are) wonderful universities.”
The issue, Bevacqua suggested, was the steady drumbeat of pro-Miami sentiment on the ACC’s social media posts and through its studio shows at the ACC Network. In several side-by-side comparisons, starting in November, the league made the case that Team A (Miami) was more playoff worthy than Team B, aka the Irish, last year’s CFP runners-up.
“We didn’t appreciate the fact that we were singled out repeatedly and compared to Miami,” Bevacqua said. “Not by Miami. Miami has every right to do that. But it raised a lot of eyebrows here that the conference was taking shots at us.
“That’s just not something we chose to do. We wouldn’t choose to do that in the future. People might disagree with us, but that’s just not something that we’d be comfortable with.”
Notre Dame joined the ACC in 2014 as a full member in every sport except men’s hockey (Big Ten) and football, which has an annual scheduling agreement to play a rotating group of five ACC schools each fall.
The Irish proudly guard their football independence otherwise.
Notre Dame AD blasts CFP selection process
Bevacqua also explained Notre Dame’s decision to withdraw from bowl consideration when a proposed matchup with Brigham Young in the Dec. 27 Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando was being offered.
“I get why people think it’s sour grapes, but it’s disappointment,” he said. “We take this seriously, as do other universities. The rankings can’t just be musical chairs at some fifth-grade birthday party. They have to mean something. And to me, what happened to us, really kind of was alarming.”
This is the first year without postseason participation for Notre Dame since the 2016 team went 4-8 under Brian Kelly. The Irish also missed the postseason in 2001 (5-6), 2003 (5-7), 2007 (3-9) and 2009 (6-6).
“Everybody is kind of confused and perplexed,” Bevacqua said. “We don’t have good answers for the kids on our team, for our student-athletes … Everybody wants to do right by their team. We felt like we did what we needed to do this season to earn a spot in the college football playoffs.
“We feel that we have one of the very best teams in the country. I think the majority of people who follow the sport so closely agree. Every indication we had from that first ranking (Nov. 4) suggested that that committee agreed with us. We couldn’t possibly have ended the year any better than we did.”
Notre Dame reversed an 0-2 start with losses by a combined four points to Miami and Texas A&M to reel off 10 straight wins to close the regular season.
The Irish last trailed late in the third quarter of an Oct. 17 win over USC. Notre Dame never trailed over its final 319 minutes and 17 seconds of play this year.
USC, however, was the only Notre Dame victim all year that was included in Sunday’s CFP rankings. The Trojans were ranked 16th.
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua talks football CFP snub, ACC relationship
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